They’re a beloved symbol of Toronto and have been a mainstay of the city’s public transportation network for a century,but streetcars may pose a higher risk to pedestrian and cyclist safety compared to other transit vehicles.
According to a Star analysis of data posted online by the Toronto police, streetcars account for a disproportionate number of TTC-involved collisions that kill bicycle riders or people on foot.
Between 2007 and 2017, TTC buses and streetcars were involved in at least 29 crashes that resulted in the deaths of so-called “vulnerable road users.”
Of those collisions, 15 — or slightly more than half — involved streetcars, despite the fact that they make up only about one tenth of the TTC’s fleet of more than 2,000 vehicles, and the agency travels about 10 times as many kilometres using buses than it does streetcars.
Deaths involving streetcars still make up only a fraction of the number of vulnerable road users killed in Toronto, which have averaged around 30 a year over the past decade.
The TTC says streetcars remain “an extremely safe mode of transport” and the vehicles regularly travel millions of kilometres without a fatality.
